kanaloa

Black Finless Porpoise

 

 


Black Finless Porpoiae (Neomeris phocoenoides)

This porpoise is a native of Asiatic coastal waters from western India to Sarawak, Borneo, southern Japan and Korea (Chosen). It prefers warmer inshore waters but ascends freshwater rivers, and travels up the Yangtze for at least 1,000 miles to the Ichang Gorge in Hupeh Province .
Full-grown males are a little over five feet long. The color of this pink-eyed porpoise in life is leaden black on the upper parts and lighter beneath. Pale-gray areas, "and sometimes even purplish-red patches, are" present on the throat and lips. Unlike all of its close relatives, this porpoise lacks the usual type of dorsal fin, which is replaced on the third quarter of the body length by a fairly prominent compressed dorsal ridge. The forehead rises abruptly from the tip of the upper jaw.
When feeding in coastal waters, the Black Finless Porpoise lives chiefly on prawns, cuttlefish, and squids.


 


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